Main  .Lib. 


THE   ROBERT   E.  COWAN   COLLECTION 

I'RKSKNTKn    TO    THK 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

BY 

C.  P.  HUNT1NGTON 

JUNE.    1897. 


?sion  No./! 6~(o  ^0     Class  No. 


fc^ 


P 


I 


THE  OLIVE  TREE 


AND    ITS 


PRODUCTS, 


AND    THE 


I  Suitability  of  the  Soil  and  Climate  oi  California 


FOR    ITS 


EXTENSIVE  AND  PROFITABLE  CULTIVATIO 


JOHN    I.   BLEASDALE,   D.   D.,   F.  G.  S. 

Secretary  of  (he  Board  of  State  Viticultitral  Commissioners. 


oo., 

^RANCISCO,  PAL. 
1881, 


THE  OLIVE  TREE 


AND    ITS 


PRODUCTS, 


AND    THE 


Suitability  of  the  Soil  and  Climate  of  California 


FOR   ITS 


EXTENSIVE  AND  PROFITABLE  CULTIVATION. 


JOHN   I.  BLEASDALE,  D.  D.,  F,  G.  S. 

Secretary  of  the  Board  of  State  Viticultural  Commissioners. 


db    00., 

o T> 


To  PROF.  E.  W.  HILGARD, 

Professor  of  Agriculture  in  the  State  University: 

DEAR^'SIR:  —  I  do  myself  the  honor  of  inscribing  the  following  little  treatise,  on  "The 
Olive  Tree  and  its  Products,"  and  "The  Suitability  of  the  Climate  of  California  for  its  Ex- 
tensive Cultivation,"  to  you,  as  an  expression  of  my  admiration  of  your  efforts  to  benefit  this 
State  by  introducing  and  fostering  the  profitable  secondary  industries  of  Southern  Europe. 

$  5~&  tf  ft  JOHN  I.  BLEASDALE. 


THE   OLIVE    TREE.  I 


Among  the  vegetable  substances  which  min- 
ister to  the  daily  wants  of  man  throughout 
Southern  Europe,  Egypt,  and  sub-tropical  Asia, 
the  olive  and  its  products  hold  the  next  place 
after  cereals  and  vines  in  economic  and  com- 
mercial importance.  So  remunerative  has  the 
culture  of  the  olive  been  considered,  that,  even 
in  portions  of  a  country  where  it  does  not  form 
the  principal  aim  of  the  cultivator,  it  is  deemed 
his  most  valuable  secondary  or  subsidiary  re- 
source. Where  the  land  is  suited  for  wheat, 
especially  on  low  hill -sides,  the  olive  trees  are 
planted  at  considerable  distances  asunder  all 
through  it,  and  need  no  care  beyond  that  be- 
stowed on  cultivating  the  ground  for  ordinary 
crops.  The  cereals  may  perish  by  blight  or 
fire,  but  the  olive  crop  is  certain.  Land  in 
Southern  Europe,  with  soil  and  climate  very 
nearly  the  same  as  those  of  California,  when 
cut  up  into  very  small  holdings,  still  supports 
dense  populations  in  reasonable  comfort.  The 
people  are  frugal,  industrious,  thrifty,  and  yet 
enjoy  life  with  a  keenness  but  little  felt  in  the 
hurry  and  bustle  of  activity  in  new  countries 
like  California  or  Australia. 

Lands  of  every  quality,  suitable  for  every  va- 
riety of  sub -tropical  produce,  are  abundant  in 
California — so  abundant  and  cheap  that  the 
cultivation  is  generally  slovenly,  and  nearly  al- 
ways cropped  with  the  same  cereals,  or  roots, 
till  it  gradually  becomes  exhausted,  and  a  prey 
to  mere  weeds.  Like  many  other  things  which 
are  plentiful  and  cheap,  little  respect  is  paid  to 
land  beyond  its  present  use.  Not  so,  however, 
in  countries  like  Belgium  and  Lombardy,  Italy. 
There  every  inch  is  turned  to  account,  and 
kept  in  uniform  fertility  from  generation  to 
generation  through  thousands  of  years.  No 
people  better  understand  and  practice  irriga- 
tion than  the  Lombards ;  and  there  is  many  a 
useful  hint  to  be  gathered  out  of  their  experi- 
ence which  would  amply  repay  the  Californian 
cultivator,  if  he  only  knew  it.  Now  that  atten- 
tion is  being  turned  to  the  establishment  of  ru- 
ral colonies,  with  a  view  to  special  industries, 
such  as  small  vineyards,  the  making  of  raisins, 
drying  of  fruit,  and  the  like,  these  remarks,  and 
others  thrown  out  as  occasion  may  offer  in  these 
pages,  have  a  pregnant  meaning  for  those  who 
are  entertaining  the  notion  of  settling  on  coun- 
try lands,  or  have  already  so  settled.  In  fact, 
it  is  chiefly  for  them  that  I  write.  In  certain 


highly  favored  localities,  such  as  the  districts 
about  Fresno,  the  system  of  agricultural  colo- 
nies has  been  tried,  where  the  holdings  are 
small,  say  from  twenty  to  perhaps  one  hundred 
acres,  and  the  result  so  far  is  encouraging. 
Still,  the  land  is  as  yet  not  reduced  to  its  full 
bearing  capacity,  whether  as  to  vineyards,  grain 
crops,  root  crops,  such  as  the  sweet  potato,  or 
hay,  which  form  the  staple  industries  at  the 
present  time. 

OTHER  SUITABLE  INDUSTRIES. 

On  a  thirty  or  forty -acre  farm  the  eye  of  a 
Belgian  or  of  a  Lombard  would  at  a  glance 
perceive  where  the  support  of  the  family  might 
be  obtained,  with  little  or  no  additional  outlay 
or  labor  than  such  as  could  be  done  by  children 
in  odd  hours.  Bees  are  frequently  kept,  it  is 
true ;  but  where  do  we  find  the  natural  accom- 
paniment of  them? — aromatic  plants,  such  as 
rosemary,  lavender,  lemon,  thyme,  etc. — the 
money  value  of  which  for  their  essential  oils 
would  be  considerable.  Fig  trees  are  begin- 
ning to  be  thought  about  for  their  fruit,  but  as 
yet  we  nowhere  see  them  planted  out  in  vine- 
•yards,  as  they  should  be — here  and  there,  espe- 
cially in  the  lowest  and  dampest  parts,  because 
there  they  serve  the  excellent  purpose  of  at- 
tracting small  birds  and  flies  which  would  other- 
wise play  havoc  among  the  grapes.  The  shade 
is  grateful,  and  the  fruit,  ripening  as  it  does 
weeks  before  the  grapes,  effectually  gathers 
those  mischievous  pests  to  itself  alone,  for  they 
prefer  the  ripe  fig  to  all  other  fruit. 

Nearly  every  expense  attending  on  house- 
keeping is  got  out  of  these  secondary  indus- 
tries. Nay,  more ;  in  the  vicinity  of  Lisbon,  in 
former  years  the  crop  of  olives  grown  in  the 
wheat  field  paid  probably  more  than  the  whole 
expense  of  cultivating  the  land  and  securing 
the  harvest.  Of  course,  these  secondary  in- 
dustries vary  in  different  localities,  and  not  un- 
frequently  in  the  same  district.  Some  situa- 
tions have  acquired  a  reputation  for  the  excel- 
lence of  their  figs;  others  for  their  walnuts, 
chestnuts,  or  hazel  nuts;  others  again  for  the 
abundance  and  excellence  of  herbs,  such  as 
saffron,  pimento,  mint,  licorice,  etc. — all  of 
which  have  a  certain  market  value.  By-prod- 
ucts, such  as  those  enumerated,  together  with 
eggs  and  chickens,  which  they  raise  in  quantity 


THE   OLIVE   TREE. 


for  sale,  and  perhaps  a  goat  or  two  for  milking, 
keep  the  family  in  what  among  them  is  con- 
sidered quite  reasonable  comfort  and  respecta- 
bility. Again,  in  the  sub-Apennine  Mountains 
the  chestnut  is  the  principal  stand-by.  So  im- 
portant is  the  chestnut  as  an  article  of  food 
and  nourishment,  that  even  should  a  mother 
lose  her  milk,  or  has  had  but  little  or  none,  she 
has  only  to  have  recourse  to  her  store  of  chest- 
nut meal,  however  tender  her  babe  may  be, 
when  a  spoonful  of  it  made  into  pap  .  and 
strengthened  with  a  small  quantity  of  wine  will 
answer  all  the  ends  required,  as  many  a  sturdy 
Italian  now  living  in  California  can  testify. 

In  places  in  Southern  Europe,  where  every 
bit  of  land  is  turned  to  account,  it  not  unfre- 
quently  happens  that  there  is  a  steep,  rocky 
corner  where  vines  could  not  be  profitably  cul- 


grown  along  fences  and  hedge-rows,  or  other- 
wise worthless  stony  places. 

(6.)  Being  an  evergreen,  when  planted  around 
fences  it  forms  a  capital  shelter  for  more  deli- 
cate fruits,  vineyards,  etc. 

(7.)  Last,  but  not  least,  because  when  once 
brought  into  bearing,  it  will  not  need  to  be  re- 
newed, but  will  be  still  yielding  its  annual  crop 
when  the  last  ounce  of  gold  or  silver  shall  have 
been  wrung  from  the  bowels  of  the  earth. 

THE  LONGEVITY  OF  THE  OLIVE  TREE 

Is  wonderful.  Its  life-period  is  not  certainly 
known.  The  tree  above  ground  will,  of  course, 
die  out.  In  fact,  in  the  long  course  of  years  it 
becomes  a  mere  shell^for  it  begins  to  die  at 
the  core,  but  the  root  does  not  perish.  Out  of 
this  springs  the  new  tree.  In  the 
very  old  olive  groves  about  Palma, 
near  Lisbon,  in  Portugal,  I  have 
noted  this  circumstance  oftener 
than  once.  Travelers  most  com- 
petent to  judge  are  agreed  that  the 
present  olive  trees  on  Mount  Oli- 
vet, near  Jerusalem,  are  the  same 
that  Christ  prayed  under  and  his 
disciples  fell  asleep  under  nine- 
teen hundred  years  ago,  and  they 
are  even  now  yielding  their  annual 
crop  of  fruit. 

GROUND  FOR  A  PLANTATION. 


TERRACING  VINES  AND  OLIVE  TREES. 


tivated,  in  which  case  rough  terracing  is  had 
recourse  to  to  keep  the  soil  together,  and  allow 
some  cultivation,  as  is  shown  in  the  engraving. 

One  might  naturally  ask  why  the  olive  tree 
has  ever  been  such  a  favorite  in  Southern  Eu- 
rope, Asia,  and  Africa  with  men  who  have  an 
eye  to  economic  industries?  It  certainly  is 
not  a  very  ornamental  tree.  To  reply  briefly, 
I  should  say  : 

(i.)  Because  of  the  ease  with  which  it  can  be 
raised  from  seed;  or,  better  still,  propagated 
from  large  cuttings. 

(2.)  The  little  attention  the  plant  requires 
when  once  it  has  broken  into  leaf. 

(3.)  Because  when  properly  planted,  trun- 
cheon fashion,  it  will  usually  begin  to  bear  the 
fourth  year — not  unfrequently  a  few  berries  the 
third  year. 

(4.)  The  certainty  of  a  crop.  It  usually  bears 
in  alternate  years  a  heavy  and  a  light  crop. 

(5.)  The  fact  that  no  great  breadth  of  land  is 
needed  for  a  plantation  since  it  can  be  readily 


When  the  purpose'  is  to  form  an 
olive  grove  to  be  devoted  to  the 
growth  of  the  olive  tree  for  fruit 
alone,  then  all  experience  points  to  a  moder- 
ately strong  soil  such  as  would  bear  wheat,  with 
a  rather  moist  subsoil,  as  the  best.  Drainage 
will  be  found  necessary  where  there  is  any  dan- 
ger of  stagnant  water  lodging  about  the  roots. 
These  conditions  have  been  found  in  the  great- 
est perfection  on  low  hills  and  slopes  exposed 
more  or  less  to  sea  breezes.  From  my  own  ex- 
perience and  observation  deep  trenching  was 
not  needed,  but,  of  course,  very  advantageous 
when  labor  and  cost  are  of  little  consideration. 
If  the  holes  for  the  plants  be  dug  three  feet 
in  diameter  by  about  the  same  in  depth,  that 
will  be  sufficient  to  give  them  a  good  hold  on 
the  ground,  and  for  the  rest  they  will  take  care 
of  themselves.  In  this  connection,  I  gladly 
avail  myself  of  remarks  made  by  Mr.  B.  B. 
Redding,  of  San  Francisco,  in  the  course  of  an 
interesting  paper  on  olive  growing  read  two 
years  ago  before  the  Academy  of  Sciences : 

"This  tree  will  grow  in  almost  any  soil  except 
that  containing  much  moisture.     Marsh  states 


THE   OLIVE   TREE. 


'that  it  prefers  a  light  warm  ground,  but  does 
not  thrive  in  rich  alluvial  land,  and  grows  well 
on  hilly  and  rocky  surfaces.'  Beniays  says 
'that  it  thrives  and  is  most  prolific  in  dry  cal- 
careous schistose,  sandy,  and  rocky  situations. 
The  land  must  be  naturally  or  artificially  well 
drained.  Its  great  enemy  is  excess  of  moisture. 
It  rejoices  in  the  mechanical  looseness  of  sandy, 
gravelly  and  stony  soils,  and  in  freedom  from 
stagnant  moisture.'  Brande  asserts  that  it  only 
grows  well  and  yields  large  crops  'in  a  warm 
and  comparatively  dry  climate.'  Dr.  Robinson 
says  'it  delights  in  a  stony  soil,  and  thrives 
even  on  the  sides  and  tops  of  rocky  hills  where 
there  is  scarcely  any  earth ;  hence  the  expres- 
sion in  the  Bible,  "oil  out  of  the  flinty  rock." ' 
Hillhouse,in  his  article  on  this  tree  in  Michaux's 
Sylva,  says:  'The  olive  accommodates  itself  to 
almost  any  variety  of  soil,  but  it  shuns  a  re- 
dundancy of  moisture,  and  prefers  loose  cal- 
careous fertile  lands  mingled  with  stones,  such 
as  the  territory  of  Attica  and  the  south  of 
France.  The  quality  of  its  fruit  is  essentially 
affected  by  that  of  the  soil.  It  succeeds  in 
good  loam  capable  of  bearing  wheat,  but  in  fat 
lands  it  yields  oil  of  an  inferior  flavor,  and  be- 
comes laden  with  a  barren  exuberance  of  leaves 
and  branches.  The  temperature  of  the  climate 
is  a  consideration  of  more  importance  than  the 
nature  of  the  soil.'  Downing,  in  writing  of  this 
tree  in  Southern  Europe,  says :  'A  few  olive 
trees  will  serve  for  the  support  of  an  entire 
family  who  would  starve  on  what  could  other- 
wise be  raised  on  the  same  surface  of  soil ;  and 
dry  crevices  of  rocks  and  almost  otherwise  bar- 
ren soils  in  the  deserts,  when  planted  with  this 
tree,  become  flourishing  and  valuable  places  of 
habitation.' " 

CLIMATE  OF  THE  OLIVE  TREE. 

The  olive  tree,  like  most  other  sub-tropical 
trees,  has  a  wide  range  within  which  it  will 
thrive  and  be  fruitful,  though  the  fruit  grown  at 
either  of  the  extreme  points  of  the  range  will 
generally  be  of  inferior  quality.  In  the  warmer 
parts  of  Northern  Italy  it  thrives  and  produces 
freely.  About  Lago  di  Como  and  Lago  Mag- 
giore  it  seems  to  touch  the  outermost  limit  of 
warmth.  There  the  fruit  is  not  unusually  gath- 
ered when  the  snow  is  lying  six  inches  thick 
over  the  ground.  No  one  would  advise  the 
planting  of  it  in  California  under  the  conditions 
last  mentioned. 

I  am  again  glad  to  be  able  to  avail  myself  of 
the  patient  industry  of  Mr.  Redding,  for  it  re- 
quires much  perseverence  and  zeal  to  work  out 
climatic  details  such  as  will  be  found  in  the 
subjoined  table  and  its  introductory  remarks. 


It  is  matter  for  regret  that  his  interesting  paper 
has  not  been  thrown  out  in  a  less  perishable 
form  than  publication  in  the  columns  of  a  news- 
paper. 

"For  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  where  with- 
in this  State  the  olive  can  be  successfully  culti- 
vated, I  have  gathered  from  the  tables  of  tem- 
perature of  the  Smithsonian  Institution  and 
the  Chief  Engineer's  Department  of  the.  rail- 
road companies,  a  list  of  all  the  places  whose 
temperatures  fall  within  those  limits  which 
Humboldt  states  have  been  found  to  be  essen- 
tial. The  regions  which  this  list  represents 
could,  without  doubt,  be  extended,  had  more 
attention  been  given  in  different  parts  of  the 
State  to  observing  and  recording  the  variations 
in  temperature.  It  will  be  remembered  that 
the  requisites  of  successful  and  profitable  culti- 
tion  are,  that  for  the  year  it  must  be  as  warm 
as  57.17°.  The  mean  for  the  coldest  month 
must  be  as  warm  as  41.5°,  and  at  no  time  must 
the  temperature  fall  below  14°.  I  cannot  find 
in  any  authority  how  high  a  temperature  it  will 
bear,  but  as  it  is  successfully  grown  in  Algeria 
and  Egypt,  it  could  hardly  be  injured  by  the 
highest  temperatures  that  occur  at  the  places 
mentioned  in  the  following  list : 


S^ 

vf 

s^ 

f? 

§! 

Lowest   temperature 

Places. 

*"!" 

^i 

II. 

shown  by  thermom- 

j. 

§  i 

Ji 

eter  in  any  year. 

s 

:  s 

§  s" 

- 

» 

:  3 

San  Diego  ...   . 

150 

62.49 

53-30 

26  —  December,  1854 

Los  Angeles.  .    . 

457 

67.69 

58.95 

39  —  December,  1876 

Soledad  

182 

59-08 

45-23 

24  —  January,      1877 

Salinas  .  •      . 

4.8    2C. 

Hollister  .     .    . 

284 

61  .46 

4°  •  *o 
46.53 

27  —  December,  1874 

Gilroy  
San  Jose.  . 

Z93 

59-07 
en  .  60 

44-45 

21  —  January,       1877 
28  —  December    1874 

Livermore 
Benicia  

485 
64 

oy  .  w 
61.49 
58.77 

49-52 
47-43 

28  —  December,  1870 
19—  January,      1854 

Vallejo  
Fort  Tejon   
Sumner 

o 

3240 

58.77 
58.03 
68.29 

47.41 
42.05 

29  —  December,  1877 
22  —  December,  1855 

Delano  

4*5 

68.64 

40.  7* 

30  —  January       1876 

Borden  

274 

66.37 

45  -44 

24  —  January,      1  877 

Fort  Miller  

402 

66.56 

47-47 

23  —  January,      1854 

Merced  

171 

63.16 

48.14 

28  —  January       1876 

Modesto  

9i 

63.68 

47-69 

22  —  December,  1874 

Ellis 

76 

67  oo 

Stockton  

7U 

uo  *oo 
61.99 

47-43 

21  —  December,  1872 

Sacramento  

3° 

60.48 

T/       tO 
46.21 

28  —  December,  1849 

Auburn  ....    . 

1363 

6O         I 

45-88 

27  January       1871 

Colfax  
Marysville  

2421 
67 

60  .'o5 
63.52 

45-49 
48.70 

26  —  January,      1873-4 
27  —  December,  1876 

Chico  

62.  ,6 

23  —  December    1872 

Tehama  
Red  Bluff...... 
Redding  

222 

307 
558 

"4 

fan 

64-14 

47.01 
48.29 
46.72 

23  —  December,  1871 
26  —  December,  1873 
*7—  January,      1876 

"For  the  purpose  of  comparing  the  tempera- 
tures of  the  above  named  places  in  California 
with  those  of  regions  in  which  the  produce  of 
the  olive  is  among  the  articles  of  the  first  agri- 
cultural and  commercial  importance,  I  have 
compiled  from  Blodgett's  Climatology  the  mean 
annual  and  the  mean  winter  temperatures,  as 


THE   OLIVE   TREE. 


also  the  mean  temperature  of  the  coldest  month 
of  the  following  prominent  places  in  Italy, 
Spain,  Portugal,  France,  Egypt,  and  Palestine : 


Places. 

Mean  temperature 
for  the  year.  

Mean  temperature 
for  winter  

BMean  temperature 
of  coldest  months 

g 

g 

Naples  

60  o 

3 

Madrid  

c8  03 

41.02 

Marseilles  

64.03 

45 

51.02 

Alexandria  

66  08 

eg  o^ 

"  A  comparison  of  the  above  tables  will  show 
that  so  far  as  they  relate  to  the  mean  for  the 
year  and  the  mean  for  the  coldest  month,  the 
climate  of  Rome  and  Sacramento  is  nearly  the 
same.  So  is  Alexandria  and  Los  Angeles ; 
Florence  and  Fort  Tejon;  Lisbon  and  Liver- 
more;  Marseilles  and  Benicia;  Algiers  and 
San  Diego,  and  Jerusalem  and  Merced.  In 
but  one  case  for  the  year  is  there  a  difference 
of  more  than  one  degree,  and  in  but  one  case 
more  than  three  degrees  for  the  difference  of 
the  coldest  month. 

THE  WARM  BELT  OF  THE  FOOT-HILLS. 

"Another  fact  worthy  of  notice  which  has 
been  suspected,  but  for  the  proof  of  which  the 
data  has  not  before  been  attainable,  is  that  the 
zone  in  the  Sierra,  known  as  the  foot-hills,  is  as 
warm  for  the  year,  and  as  warm  for  the  coldest 
month,  as  the  Sacramento  Valley  in  the  same 
latitudes.  This  warm  belt  certainly  extends  to 
an  elevation  of  2,500  feet,  Colfax,  with  an  ele- 
vation of  2,421  feet,  has  a  mean  for  the  year  of 
60.5°,  and  a  mean  for  the  coldest  month  of 
45.49° :  while  for  the  same  periods  Sacramento 
has  for  the  year  60.48°,  and  for  the  coldest 
month  46.21°.  Fort  Tejon,  on  the  Tehachepi 
Mountains,  elevation  6,240  feet,  for  the  year,  is 
but  six  degrees  colder  than  Tulare,  in  the  cen- 
ter of  the  valley,  3,000  feet  below;  while  the 
temperature  for  the  winter  months  is  nearly  the 
same,  Fort  Tejon  having  42.5°,  and  Tulare 
42.7°.  This  zone  of  warm  temperature  ex- 
plains the  success  in  the  growth  of  oranges 
and  other  semi-tropical  fruits,  wherever  planted 
below  an  elevation  of  2,000  feet  in  the  foot-hills 
of  the  Sierra.  There  have  been  omitted  from 
the  list  of  stations  in  California,  San  Francisco, 
Monterey,  Pajaro,  San  Mateo,  Petaluma,  Vi- 
salia,  and  Tulare,  for  the  reason  that  in  the 
mean  annual  temperature,  or  in  the  mean  for 


the  coldest  months,  they  fall  below  57°  or  41". 
Without  doubt  the  olive  could  be  grown  in 
these  places,  but  its  cultivation  could  hardly 
be  made  profitable."  There  is  a  very  generally 
received  opinion  that  sea  air  is  peculiarly  fa- 
vorable to  the  olive  tree,  and  I  respectfully  in- 
dorse it  from  the  observations  I  have  been  able 
to  make.  I  know  it  flourishes,  and  is  very  pro- 
lific, far  beyond  the  ordinary  range  of  sea  air,  as 
in  Egypt,  Arabia,  and  Persia ;  but  there  seems 
to  be  a  confusion  of  terms  here.  No  one  surely 
denies  the  fact  of  its  growth,  but  disputes  the 
goodness  of  its  produce  for  human  food.  Did 
any  one  ever  meet  such  an  advertisement  as 
this  in  the  shop  windows,  or  newspaper  col- 
umns? The  following  appeared  not  very  long 
ago  as  an  advertisement : 

"SOMETHING  NEW  AND   DELICIOUS. 

"Messrs.  Brown  &  Co.,  importers  of  groceries,  oil- 
men's stores,  etc.,  etc.,  have  just  received  from  Suez  a 
consignment  of  olive  oil  from  Central  Egypt  of  most 
superior  quality  for  salads,  for  cooking  fish,  etc.  This 
oil  has  the  merit  of  having  been  grown  in  a  region  re- 
mote from  sea  air,  and  consequently  has  never  been  un- 
der saline  influence.  Far  superior  to  the  Lucca  ar- 
ticle!"* 

Vast  quantities  of  olive  oil  are  imported  into 
England  from  those  eastern  countries,  well 
enough  suited  for  use  in  the  manufacture  of 
broadcloth.  It  is  used  mainly  for  that  purpose, 
and  is  as  useful  as  the  best,  and  procurable  at 
a  low  figure — say  sixty  cents  per  gallon.  But 
the  fine  table  oils  of  Southern  Europe  are  very 
dear  in  comparison — from  $1.25  to  $2  per  gal- 
lon. The  contention  is  that  sea-air,  from  what- 
ever cause,  has  been  found  most  beneficial  in 
producing  the  finest  fruit  and  oil.  I  shall  have 
to  remind  the  reader  again  of  these  remarks 
when  I  come  to  deal  with  the  method  of  olive 
planting.  Still  it  may  be  as  well  to  say  in  this 
connection  once  for  all  that  very  nearly,  if  not 
quite,  all  the  writers  on  olive  trees  and  their  oil 
refer  only  to  the  best  kinds  for  human  food,  and 
the  methods  of  their  cultivation.  But  it  must 
be  kept  in  view  that  the  consumption  of  olive 
oil  in  the  form  of  food  is  only  a  fraction  of  the 
whole ;  and  in  countries  where  butter  is  excel- 
lent, plentiful,  and  cheap,  oil  will  never  become 
more  than  a  condiment — so  to  speak — or  a 
relish.  The  real  consumers  of  olive  oil  are  the 
woolen  mills.  When  the  yolk  has  been  taken 
out  of  the  wool,  it  must  be  soaked  in  olive  oil 
for  all  finer  kinds  of  cloths,  and  this  oil  need 
not  be  better  than  the  worst  yield  of  the  berry. 
In  this  country  such  would  be  yielded  by  the 
second  pressing,  or  third,  and  abundantly  by 


*  The  man  who  wrote  the  above  was  either  an  ignoramus  or 
a  cheat. 


THE   OLIVE   TREE. 


UNITBRSITY 
<2LcJ«j?OB*\* 


trees  planted  in  the  fences,  or  on  waste  bits  of 
land,  or  for  shelter  in  vineyards  and  orchards, 
and  here  and  there  on  cultivated  lands,  etc. 
This  is  the  oil  which  in  Europe  brings  less  than 
a  dollar  per  gallon,  yet  here  worth  more  than 
wine. 

MANURING. 

If  the  ground  be  of  the  description  above 
mentioned,  not  much  will  be  required  in  the 
way  of  manure  unless  it  be  impoverished  by 
some  means,  such  as  planting  vegetables  too 
near  the  olive  trees.  For  such  as  are  set  out 
in  wheat  fields  the  ordinary  cultivation  and  ma- 
nuring will  suffice,  and  the  same  may  be  said 
in  respect  to  gardens  and  orchards.  If  manure 
of  any  kind  is  to  be  applied,  it  ought  to  be  just 
before  the  fall  of  the  annual  rains.  But,  under 
any  circumstances,  in  this  climate,  there  ought 
to  be  placed  immediately  around  the  plant,  or 
truncheon,  a  good  mat  of  grass,  dead  weeds, 
leaves,' or  in  fact  any  kind  of  light  rubbish,  to 
prevent  evaporation,  and  to  keep  the  ground 
cool  and  damp  during  the  hot  weather.  In 
Australia  this  kind  of  protection  has  long  been 
found  most  beneficial  for  all  sorts  of  young 
trees,  and  is  now  in  universal  use. 

Having  now  said  nearly  all  that  needs  be  said 
about  soil,  climate,  and  one  or  two  precaution- 
ary matters,  we  will  proceed  to  describe  the 
methods  of  raising  olive  plants. 

They^rj1/,  then,  would  naturally  be  by  means 
of  the  fruit,  and  that  is  easily  disposed  of.  It 
must  be  borne  in  mind,  however,  that  it  is  de- 
sirable to  crush  the  berries  lightly,  so  that  the 
juice  may  soon  run  away,  as  it  seems  to  endan- 
ger the  success  of  the  seed.  If  the  seed  (hard 
kernels )  be  soaked  in  lukewarm  water  for  three 
or  four  days  previous  to  planting,  they  are  likely 
to  germinate  sooner.  Large  birds,  such  as  tur- 
keys, by  eating  them  and  partially  digesting  the 
stones,  or  kernels,  have  in  this  way  distributed 
the  olive  in  many  countries.  The  most  suitable 
plan  for  these  countries  is  to  make  a  seed  -  bed 
in  a  warm,  sheltered  nook,  where  the  soil  is 
rich  and  fine,  covering  it  lightly  with  a  loam  or 
fine  mold,  and  over  this  a  pretty  fair  covering 
of  decaying  leaves  and  small  twigs,  so  as  to 
protect  the  seed  from  frost,  severe  winds,  and 
such  vermin  as  mice.  Laid  out  this  way  in 
October  or  November,  they  will  germinate  in 
April  or  May.  Of  course,  there  will  be  differ- 
ences- in  the  time  of  starting,  according  to  the 
preparation,  or  sometimes  the  kind  of  seed.  In 
olive  countries  this  method  is  rarely  resorted 
to ;  partly  because  where  more  than  one  varie- 
ty is  cultivated  in  a  grove  the  seed  is  sure  to  be- 
come hybridized,  and  because  there  are  other 


methods  more  certain  of  rapidly  yielding  a  re- 
turn and  less  expensive.  There  being  in  Cali- 
fornia already  abundance  of  the  "Mission" 
olive,  two  methods  of  rapidly  rearing  the  olive 
grove  present  themselves.  The  first  is  by  split- 
ting up  the  root  of  an  old  or  useless  tree ;  cut 
the  stem  a  few  inches  above  the  ground,  chop 
the  root  out  of  the  ground  and  split  it  into 
pieces  two  or  three  inches  in  diameter,  and 
plant  these  in  the  places  where  they  are  to  re- 
main permanently,  keep  them  free  from  weeds, 
and  otherwise  handle  them  as  if  they  were  seed- 
lings. Where  a  tree  can  be  spared  for  the 
purpose,  this  method  is  of  great  use,  as,  if  left 
to  its  natural  growth  and  not  worked  back  by 
pruning,  it  will  yield  both  fruit,  and,  what  is  of 
more  importance,  abundance  of  branches  (thick 
sticks,  in  fact)  which  we  call  "truncheons." 

TRUNCHEON  PLANTING. 

This  method  is,  by  far,  the  safest,  easiest, 
most  economical,  and  certain  to  preserve  the 
kind  of  fruit  in  purity.  It  cannot  be  otherwise, 
unless  it  be  grafted  to  other  varieties,  since  it 
is  only  the  continuation  of  the  parent  tree.  To 
this  method,  then,  I  wish  to  invite  very  especial 
attention,  while  I  describe  the  particulars  to  be 
observed  in  order  to  insure  success.  And  as  I 
have  had  considerable  experience  in  this  way 
of  raising  olive  trees,  and  know  about  the  suc- 
cess which  has  attended  it  under  my  own  di- 
rection, I  can  speak  with  perfect  confidence. 
I  cannot  do  so  better,  I  think,  than  by  making 
an  extract  from  the  report  which  I  furnished 
to  the  Government  of  Victoria,  Australia : 

"Having  been  intrusted  by  the  commission 
with  the  duty  of  procuring  plants  of  the  olive 
tree,  and  superintending  the  planting  of  them, 
I  have  now  the  honor  to  report  upon  the  sev- 
eral steps  I  have  taken,  and  the  methods 
adopted  in  selecting  cuttings  and  preparing 
them  for  planting,  as  well  as  the  actual  process 
from  first  to  last  of  placing  the  plants  in  situ. 
Besides  planting  at  the  industrial  schools 
ground  at  Sunbury,  where,  it  is  to  be  hoped, 
the  boys  will  in  future  be  familiarized  with  olive 
cultivation,  and  a  few,  as  hereinafter  mentioned, 
set  out  near  Sunbury  and  at  Essendon  for  the 
purpose  of  trying  a  special  method  of  planting 
in  those  localities,  the  principal  experiments 
on  a  large  scale  are  being  carried  out  at  the 
Acclimatization  Society's  Gardens,  Royal  Park, 
and  within  easy  reach  of  persons  visiting  or  re- 
siding in  and  near  the  city.  I  procured  in  the 
first  instance  one  hundred  truncheons  of  at 
least  five  feet  in  length,  and  from  two  to  three 
inches  in  diameter,  from  South  Australia,  from 
olive  trees  which  I  saw  in  bearing  in  April. 


8 


THE   OLIVE   TREE. 


"These  five-foot  long  truncheons  were  planted 
in  holes  about  three  feet  in  diameter,  and  two 
feet  six  inches  deep.  Some  good  topsoil  and 
occasionally  a  little  rich  loam  was  placed  in  the 
bottom,  and  on  the  top  of  this  a  handful  of  per- 
fectly sound  barley,  such  as  would  germinate 
as  far  as  it  could  soon  after  the  planting  was 
completed.  Before,  however,  the  truncheon 
was  placed  in  position  the  thick  end  was  cut 
with  some  sharp  instrument,  such  as  a  saw,  into 
four  or  five  nicks,  about  one-third  of  an  inch 
deep,  and  these  nicks,  or  saw  cuts,  were  filled 
with  grains  of  barley  thrust  carefully  into  them, 
for  the  obvious  purpose  of  supplying  plant  food 
as  soon  as  the  truncheon  might  need  it.  Being 
prepared  in  this  manner,  it  was  placed  firmly 
upon  the  barley  already  placed  in  the  bottom 
of  the  hole,  and  filled  up  in  the  usual  way,  the 
best  soil  first,  and  well  trodden  about  the  root 
end.  Great  care  is  taken  lest  the  plant  should 
become  loose  through  shrinkage  of  the  soil, 
especially  the  clay.  Finally  it  would  have  to 
be  watered,  had  the  weather  not  been  very  wet, 
and  last  of  all  grass  was  placed  about  the  stem 
to  keep  heat  out  and  moisture  in.  Distance 
asunder,  forty  feet. 

"The  above  comprises  the  detail  of  trun- 
cheon planting  except  in  one  particular.  The 
Italians  cut  the  small  end  slanting  that  water 
may  not  lodge  upon  it;  but  the  Portuguese  saw 
it  fairly  across,  and  place  on  the  top  a  little 
finely  tempered  clay,  as  in  grafting,  and  secure 
it  by  means  of  a  rag  tied  over  it ;  or,  better  still, 
paint  the  top  and  large  knots  with  shellac,  or 
other  such  material. 

"In  this  way,  as  I  have  said,  several  hun- 
dreds have  been  already  planted  at  the  Royal 
Park  Gardens. 

"Considering  that  it  is  a  primary  object  with 
the  commission  to  afford  practical  evidence  of 
the  advantage  of  one  kind  of  cultivating  the 
olive  tree  over  another,  I  proceeded  to  cause 
several  hundreds  to  be  planted  of  two  feet  six 
inches  in  length,  in  a  way  not  distantly  resem- 
bling the  one  just  detailed.  They  are  put  out 
a  foot  or  two  asunder  in  rows,  in  beds  of  rich 
sandy  loam,  and  excellently  sheltered  from  the 
hot  north  winds. 

"Then  I  caused  another  lot,  comprising  sev- 
eral hundreds,  to  be  planted,  of  lengths  varying 
from  two  feet  to  fifteen  inches,  in  the  same  soil, 
but  closer  together  and  of  varying  thickness, 
say  from  two  and  a  half  inches  to  half  an  inch. 

"There  was  only  one  other  way  which  I  have 
not  directed  to  be  tried — that  of  taking  a  root 
and  splitting  into  bits,  from  the  upper  part 
downward,  and  planting  these.  It  is  said  this 
,  plan  never  fails.  But  the  difficulty  was  in  this 
country  to  find  a  root  of  any  considerable  size ; 


so  the  idea  was  abandoned  for  the  present. 
The  advantages  of  truncheon  planting  are, 
that  the  plant  is  put  once  for  all  in  its  perma- 
nent situation ;  that  it  needs  little  or  no  care 
when  once  it  begins  to  grow ;  that  it  bears  fre- 
quently the  second  year,  nearly  always  the 
third,  and  forms  a  regular  tree,  as  it  should  do, 
not  a  bush,  and  secures  the  identity  of  a  given 
variety,  which  cannot  be  depended  upon  in 
seedlings. 

"All  the  other  methods  necessarily  take  more 
time.  A  year  is  always  lost  in  the  setting  of 
the  plants  out ;  and  it  is  rarely  under  from  six 
to  nine  years  that  they  come  into  full  bearing, 
and  in  this  colony  especially  they  are  liable  to 
grow  into  scrubby  bushes.  I  would  mention 
here  that  I  have  had  a  number  of  truncheons 
planted  in  situations  most  fully  exposed  to  the 
north  winds,  and  others  under  the  most  com- 
plete shelter,  with  a  view  of  affording  instruc- 
tion as  to  exposure.  For  hill -side  planting 
Sunbury  must  answer,  for  gentle  slopes  -Essen- 
don,  while  the  land  at  the  Royal  Park  is  rather 
flat. 

"The  cost  of  purchase  and  of  planting  over 
one  thousand  six  hundred  olive  cuttings  was 
about  $225,  or  about  seven  pence  each,  taken 
one  with  another.  The  commission  paid  six- 
pence each  for  truncheons  five  feet  long. 

"Sea  air  is  known  to  be  beneficial  to  the  per- 
fection of  the  olive ;  and  that  we  have  in  per- 
fection. So  beneficial  is  a  touch  of  salt  to  the 
tree  that  in  planting  in  Portugal  it  is  considered 
advantageous  to  put  down  a  spadeful  of  sea 
sand  obtained  from  near  low-water  mark." 

GATHERING  FRUIT. 

In  gathering  the  olives  when  quite  ripe  (in 
October  or  November  in  this  State),  the  Portu- 
guese spread  tarpaulins,  canvas,  etc.,  around 
the  root  of  the  tree,  and  then  thresh  off  the  ber- 
ries with  long  light  sticks.  This  seems  to  do 
the  tree  no  harm.  In  South  Australia  they  are 
generally  gathered  by  children. 

CONSUMPTION  OF  OLIVE  OIL. 

During  the  year  ending  June  30,  1877,  there 
were  imported  into  the  United  States  348,431 
gallons  of  olive  oil,  valued  at  $491,431,  on  which 
a  duty  was  paid  of  $232,776.75.  The  quantity 
and  value  of  pickled  olives^  imported  during  the 
same  period  are  not  given  in  the  published 
Treasury  reports,  as  this  article  is  free  from 
duty. 

Of  the  above,  San  Francisco  imported  47,- 
192  gallons,  valued  at  $97,118,  on  which  a  duty 
was  paid  of  $i  per  gallon,  or  $47,192.  The 


THE   OLIVE   TREE. 


value  of  pickled  olives  imported  into  San  Fran- 
cisco for  the  year  was  $13,892. 

Great  Britain  imports  annually  almost  5,000,- 
ooo  gallons.  Nearly  all  of  this  comes  direct- 
ly or  indirectly  from  ports  on  the  Mediterra- 
nean, and  was  produced  on  land,  the  rivers  and 
streams  of  which  flow  into  that  sea. 

PRUNING  OLIVES. 

This  process  is  adequately  shown  by  the  sub- 
joined figures.  Fig.  I  shows  the  young  tree  to 
be  cut  off  at  C.  Six  branches,  three  on  each 
side,  are  left,  and  the 
lower  twigs  shorten- 
ed. Each  branch  is 
developed  during  the 
year, as  shown  in  Fig. 
2,  which  is  then  cut 
at  C  again,  and  the 
shoots,  B  and  D,  are 
shortened.  The  up- 
per shoot  is  started 
out  by  this  process, 
and  it  appears  the  fol- 
lowing year  as  A  in 
Fig.  3,  and  it  is  again 
cut  at  C.  This  causes 
the  two  upper  shoots 
to  develop,  and  at  the 
end  of  the  year  they 
appear  as  shown  at 
B  B  in  Fig.  4.  This 
is  their  position  at  the 
fourth  year's  pruning, 
and  each  of  them  is 
cut  at  C,  and  A  is 
shortened,  and  D  is 
allowed  to  develop. 
FlG-  x-  By  this  time  the  tree 

has  a  spherical  or  vase  form,  and  exposes  much 
surface  to  the  sun,  which  is  desirable. 

THE  HOME  OF  THE  OLIVE. 

While  the  olive  is  found  wild  in  a  certain 
climatic  zone  of  the  Himalaya  Mountains,  and 
is  supposed  to  have  been  transported  in  some 
former  age  from  there  to  Europe,  yet  practi- 
cally all  of  the  olive  oil  of  commerce  comes 
from  Italy,  Spain,  France,  Greece,  Algeria,  Mo- 
rocco, and  other  countries  which  have  coasts  on 
the  Mediterranean. 

Bocardo  says  that  Italy  has  1,235,000  acres 
planted  to  the  olive,  producing  annually  30,560,- 
ooo  gallons  of  oil.  Simmons  gives  the  exports 
in  1854,  of  that  part  of  Italy  and  Sicily  then 
composing  the  Kingdom  of  Naples,  at  36,333 
tons,  valued  at  $11,263,230.  Nieman  gives  the 


FIG.  2. 

export  from  Spain  for  1873  as  valued  at  $10,- 
425,600.  In  1874,  in  consequence  of  the  Carl- 
ist  war,  it  fell  off  to  $3,716,000. 

France,  according  to  Prudent,  produces  but 
a  small  proportion  of  the  olive  oil  which  it  con- 
sumes, yet  annually  exports  to  the  value  of  $2,- 
000,000. 

George  P.  Marsh,  United  States  Minister  to 
Italy,  says  "that  in  the  olive,  walnut,  chestnut, 
cork-oak,  orange,  lemon,  fig,  and  other  trees, 
which,  by  their  fruit  and  other  products  yield 
an  annual  revenue,  nature  has  provided  South- 
ern Europe  with  a  partial  compensation  for  the 
loss  of  the  native  forest,"  and  adds:  "Some 
idea  of  the  importance  of  the  olive  orchards 
may  be  formed  from  the  fact  that  Sicily  alone, 
an  island  scarcely  exceeding  10,000  square 
miles  in  area,  of  which  one -third  at  least  is 
absolutely  barren,  has  exported  to  the  single 
port  of  Marseilles  more  than  2,000,000  pounds 
weight  of  olive  oil  per  year  for  the  last  twenty 
years." 

EXPRESSING  THE  OIL. 

In  the  south  of  France,  where  the  most  care 
is  given  in  the  preparation  of  oil  for  market,  the 


FIG.  3. 


10 


THE   OLIVE    TREE. 


olive  ripens  in  November  and  December. 
The  fruit  is  gathered  before  being  fully 
ripe,  but  is  allowed  to  remain  a  few  days 
for  the  evaporation  of  any  moisture.  It 
is  then  crushed  in  an  edge -wheel  mill  of 
stone,  commonly  drawn  by  horse -power. 
The  stone  resembles  a  large  grindstone 
with  the  edge  serrated,  and  the  mill  is 
not  unlike  the  bark  mills  in  use  in  the 
United  States  thirty  years  since.  The 
object  in  serrating  the  edge  of  the  stone 
is  to  avoid  crushing  the  seeds  or  kernels, 
which  contain  tannin  and  a  little  inferior 
oil.  The  virgin  oil  is  dipped  from  the 
mill,  and  is  almost  invariably  kept  to  en- 
rich poorer  qualities  of  oil.  The  pom- 
ace is  placed  in  coarse  linen  bags  about 
eighteen  inches  in  diameter.  Several  of 
these  are  put  into  a  screw -press  and  the 
power  applied.  The  oil  expressed  runs 
into  a  tank.  This  gives  the  first  quality 
of  oil.  The  pomace  is  now  taken  from 
the  bags,  broken  up  finely,  and  again  put 
under  the  screw -press  for  a  second  and  third 
time,  on  each  occasion  yielding  less  oil  and  of 
an  inferior  quality.  After  the  third  pressing,  the 
pomace  is  again  broken,  and  a  half  gallon  of 
boiling  water  poured  into  each  bag.  It  is  again 
pressed,  yielding  an  inferior  oil  used  for  burn- 
ing, lubricating,  and  in  the  manufacture  of  cas- 
tile  soap.  Even  the  virgin  oil  when  first  press- 
ed is  turbid,  but  clears  itself  by  standing  in 
vessels  not  open  to  the  air.  It  should  be  kept 
in  places  having  an  even  temperature.  The 
product  of  all  of  the  pressings  is  about  three 
gallons  of  oil  to  the  bushel  of  olives. 

PICKLED   OLIVES. 

The  best  olive  for  pickling  is  the  Picholine 
(Oleo  oblonga).  In  the  south  of  France  it  is 
gathered  in  October,  just  before  the  fruit  has 
commenced  to  turn  brown.  The  finest  are  se- 
lected and  placed  in  a  weak  solution  of  soda, 
to  which  lime  has  been  added.  After  remain- 
ing in  this  solution  about  ten  hours,  or  until 
the  pulp  can  be  readily  detached  from  the  ker- 
nel, they  are  removed  and  placed  in  cold  water, 
which  is  daily  changed  for  a  week.  The  pro- 
cess removes  the  tannin  from  the  unripe  fruit. 
When  they  cease  to  be  bitter,  they  are  bottled 
in  brine,  which  is  usually  made  aromatic  with 
coriander  or  fennel.  The  next  best  variety  for 
pickling,  is  the  Olea  minor  lucensis,  ninth  varie- 
ty in  New  Duhamel.  This  is  also  valuable  for 
oil. 

In  Portugal  the  ordinary  larger  kind  grown 
for  oil  is  used  to  a  vast  extent  as  food,  and  the 
experience  of  ages  in  that  country,  and  of  the 


FIG. 


whole  Hebrew  race  (the  healthiest  race  of  men 
in  the  world),  everywhere  bears  testimony  to 
its  value.  If  he  had  to  go  one  hundred  miles 
for  his  olives,  the  Jew  would  have  them. 

Without  attempting  to  give  the  detpils  of 
treating  the  Spanish  olive  for  long  preserva- 
tion, for  export,  etc.,  I  may  in  this  place  men- 
tion that  the  olive  plays  no  inconsiderable  part 
in  the  ordinary  food  of  the  people  of  Portugal ; 
and  the  experience  of  ages  has  shown  it  to  be 
both  grateful  to  the  palate  and  wholesome. 
Now  the  common  practice  is  to  allow  the  larger 
and  more  fleshy  kinds  to  become  ripe,  i.  e.y 
black,  when  they  lose  a  good  deal  of  their  as- 
tringent and  acrid  taste.  These  are  then  scald- 
ed in  water  considerably  under  boiling,  into 
which  an  ounce  or  so  of  soda  to  the  gallon  is 
dissolved,  and  let  stand  in  it  for  three  or  four 
hours — in  fact,  till  it  is  cold.  They  are  then 
taken  out  and  well  washed  in  cold  water  sev- 
eral times  over,  and  finally  put  into  a  clean 
wooden  or  large  earthenware  vessel,  and  com- 
pletely covered  with  a  pretty  strong  brine  of 
salt  and  water,  and  covered  up  from  the  air. 
Another  lot,  first  treated  as  above,  is  put  down 
as  a  pickle  in  moderately  strong  vinegar  and 
used  as  required. 

When  I  allude  to  the  preparation  of  Spanish 
olives  for  export,  I  only  mean  the  plans  adopted 
in  packing,  in  pickle,  oil,  bottling,  etc.  The 
preparation  of  the  fruit  is  alike  in  all  cases — 
save  that  when  dealing  with  the  full  ripe  ones 
we  remove  the  salt-water  pickle  three  or  four 
times  at  intervals  of  a  week  or  so,  and  each 
time  the  berries  are  rendered  more  mellow.  I 
have  kept  them  in  ordinary  large  earthenware 


THE   OLIVE   TREE. 


ii 


jars,  merely  covered  by  the  lid,  for  more  than 
two  years,  in.  Melbourne,  without  appearing  to 
change  for  the  worse. 

When  engaged  in  the  duties  of  the  Royal 
Commission  for  Foreign  Industries  and  For- 
ests in  Victoria  during  1870-1, 1  endeavored  to 
obtain  as  much  information  as  I  could  from 
botanists,  and  from  gentlemen  experienced  in 
the  growth  of  the  tree  in  Australia,  for  such 
practical  knowledge  is  often  preferable  in  new 
countries  to  aught  that  can  be  obtained  from 
books.  Accordingly,  I  obtained  the  following 
from  my  illustrious  friend,  the  Government  Bot- 
anist : 

NOTES  FROM  BARON  VON  MUELLER. 

"For  grafting  seedling  olives  there  are  at  the 
Botanic  Gardens,  Melbourne,  four  renowned  va- 
rieties, obtained  from  the  Honorable  Samuel 
Davenport,  of  Adelaide,  who,  for  a  series  of 
years,  has  given  much  attention  to  this  branch 
of  cultural  industry,  studied  this  with  other  ru- 
ral questions  during  a  stay  in  South  Europe, 
and  wrote  last  year  an  instructive  little  publica- 
tion on  the  cultivation  of  the  olive.  These  va- 
rieties a^e  : 

"(i.)  v'erdale — Available  for  a  good  table 
oil,  as  well  as  for  green  conserve.  This  and 
the  next  following  are  early  and  abundant  bear- 
ers. 

"(2.)  Blanquet  —  Adapted  for  dry  ground. 
The  oil  is  of  a  particularly  sweet,  delicate  taste, 
and  more  pale  than  other  kinds,  but  does  not 
keep  so  long.  This  and  the  Verdale  produce 
the  fruit  on  low-growing  branches,  so  as  to  be 
accessible  for  hand-picking. 

"(3.)  Bouquettier — For  superior  oil. 

"(4.)  Redounaou  —  Eligible  for  colder  re- 
gions ;  produces  table  oil,  and  is  also  esteemed 
for  conserves. 

"Some  other  kinds  are  locally  available, 
among  them  the  Olivier  de  Grasse,  the  latter 
yielding  an  excellent  table  oil  and  oil  for  per- 
fumery, but  the  plant  is  high  of  growth,  and 
the  gathering  of  the  fruit  more  expensive.  It 
is  of  a  weeping  habit.  Baron  Von  Mueller  has 
also  entered  into  arrangements  with  corre- 
spondents in  various  parts  of  South  Europe  to 
obtain  other  superior  varieties  which  as  yet  are 
not  introduced  into  Australia.  The  American 
system  of  establishing  at  regular  distances  lines 
of  shelter  plantations  of  trees  on  farm  land, 
might  be  adopted  for  planting  olives.  In  such 
cases  quick-growing  timber  trees  may  be  chosen 
in  the  first  instance  along  with  the  olives  to  pro- 
vide shelter  earlier  than  otherwise  possible. 

"Whenever  olive  fruits  cannot  well  be  locally 
utilized,  they  should  not  be  allowed  to  go  to 


waste,  but  be  sown  with  a  view  of  obtaining  a 
copious  stock  of  seedlings,  to  be  grafted,  a 
proviso  which  is  easily  accomplished  a  very 
few  years  later.  Seedlings  under  the  cover  of 
decaying  foliage  spring  up  spontaneously  in 
masses  from  dropped  fruits. 

"The  planting  of  olives  cannot  be  sufficiently 
impressed  on  proprietors  of  arable  soil,  the  cli- 
mate of  most  parts  of  Victoria  having  proved 
singularly  well  adapted  for  richly  productive 
olive  culture,  as  in  a  multitude  of  places  near 
Melbourne  and  elsewhere  may  be  seen.  While 
a  gold-field  becomes  exhausted,  an  olive  plan- 
tation increases  in  value  for  a  long  series  of 
years,  and  becomes  a  lasting  source  of  revenue 
to  its  possessor.  The  yield  is  annually  at  once 
salable,  while  it  is  for  many  small  farmers 
more  readily  remunerative  than  grapes,  if  the 
latter  are  to  be  converted  into  wine.  The  olive, 
moreover,  is  a  hardy  plant,  and  hardly  subject 
to  any  diseases  which  might  render  the  yield 
jjrecarious.  The  processes  of  gathering  the  fruit 
and  preserving  the  oil  are  of  the  simplest  kind, 
and  do,  therefore,  not  necessitate  the  applica- 
tion of  skilled  labor. 

"Mr.  Davenport's  management  of  truncheons 
is  to  bury  them  horizontally  in  the  ground 
about  four  inches  below  the  surface,  in  a  good 
vegetable  mold,  neither  subject  to  dryness  nor 
too  much  moisture.  After  two  years  the  young 
trees,  then  three  to  five  feet  high,  are  trans- 
planted to  permanent  positions,  the  month  of 
May  being  the  time  chosen  for  the  purpose. 
Olive  oil  produced  in  Adelaide  this  year  was 
sold  at  twelve  shillings  the  gallon  to  grocery  es- 
tablishments, the  fruit  being  mostly  from  seed- 
ling trees.  Careful  hand-picking  costs  in  Ade- 
laide four  pence  per  bucket.  The  work  gives 
good  employment  to  children,  who  manage  to 
pick  six  buckets  a  day,  and,  if  experienced,  may 
gather  more.  Any  simple  structure  will  an- 
swer the  purpose  of  pressing,  coir  matting  bags 
being  used  for  the  crushed  olives  for  successive 
piles  under  the  press.  The  first  oil  obtained  by 
gentle  pressure  is  the  best.  It  is  not  at  all  un- 
likely that  the  olive  plant  would  thrive  in  many 
parts  of  the  salt-bush  country  on  the  Murray 
River,  now  not  utilized  for  any  cultural  pur- 
poses." 

Mr.  Thomas  Hardy,  of  Bankside,  near  Ade- 
laide, South  Australia,  writes  : 

"  My  knowledge  of  the  olive  is  very  limited ; 
the  oldest  trees  I  have  were  planted  in  1858, 
and  have  borne  fruit  five  years.  They  were 
planted  as  seedlings  of  one  year's  growth,  and 
have  never  been  grafted.  I  have  never  tried 
growing  them  from  truncheons,  but  I  know  that 
Mr.  Samuel  Davenport  has  succeeded  in  grow- 


12 


THE   OLIVE   TREE. 


ing  them  in  moist  ground  from  cuttings  fifteen  to 
eighteen  inches  long,  and  from  one-half  to  one 
inch  through.  They  are  planted  very  sloping 
in  the  ground,  with  a  very  small  portion  left 
above.  These  mostly  root  enough  in  one  year 
to  remove  the  next  for  planting  out.  I  have 
also  seen  large  limbs  of  old  trees  planted  partly 
in  the  ground,  and  a  mound  of  earth  three  or 
four  feet  high  piled  up  round  above  the  surface, 
but  they  did  not  do  well;  the  climate  here  is 
too  dry  in  the  summer.  The  favorite  way 
seems  to  be  to  plant  seedlings,  which  are  very 
abundant,  and  can  be  bought  for  about  ^i  per 
one  thousand.  These  are  large  enough  to  graft 
in  two  years,  and  can  be  planted  out  the  follow- 
ing season  with  a  pretty  sure  prospect  of  suc- 
cess. I  am  not/  acquainted  with  the  different 
kinds  of  olives  grown  here.  Mine  are  all  seed- 
lings, and  produce  pretty  fair  sized  fruit,  but  I 
find  I  have  two  or  three  trees  very  much  su- 
perior to  the  rest,  and  shall  graft  them  all  to 
those  kinds  if  I  find  I  can  succeed  by  grafting 
in  the  larger  branches,  which  I  shall  try  this 
season.  My  olives  bear  more  abundantly  every 
second  year,  and  I  do  not  see  that  the  hot 
winds  have  any  bad  effect  on  them ;  I  never 
find  the  fruit  drop  off  after  them,  like  oranges 
do.  I  managed  to  keep  my  olives  three  years 
by  spreading  them  on  the  trays  I  use  for  fruit 
drying.  I  had  them  all  crushed  at  the  goal  by 
the  prisoners,  and  the  oil  from  the  dried  berries 
was  considered  quite  equal  to  that  got  from 
fresh  fruit.  I  have  no  knowledge  of  the  pro- 
duce per  tree  of  mine,  but  a  friend,  Mr.  Quick, 
of  Marden,  last  year  made  two  gallons  of  fine 
oil  from  a  tree  in  his  garden ;  he  has  promised 
to  give  me  the  age  of  the  tree,  etc.,  and  if  I  get 
it  I  will  inclose  it.  I  notice  that  the  olive 
grows  well  here  in  all  soils,  even  in  salty  land 
that  will  not  grow  any  fruit  tree.  I  have  my 
olives  gathered  by  children,  and  pay  them  two 
shillings  per  hundred- weight  for  gathering ;  they 
earn  about  one  shilling  per  day.  I  do  not  let 
them  beat  the  trees,  but  let  them  get  up  and 
shake  the  branches,  or  stand  on  the  ground 
with  a  long  light  pole  with  a  crook  fixed  at  the 
end  to  seize  hold  of  the  branches ;  the  crook  is 
made  of  iron  of  a  particular  shape,  and  is  cov- 
ered with  soft  stuff  to  prevent  it  barking  the 
branches.  The  trees  have  to  be  gone  over  sev- 
eral times,  as  the  olives  do  not  all  come  off  with 
the  first  shaking.  The  olive  should  not  be 
planted  less  than  twenty  feet  apart,  and  that 
will  be  too  close  on  good  land." 

The  following  is  from  my  correspondent,  Mr. 
P.  A.  Gugeri,  now  of  Western  Australia,  where 
he  is  now  engaged  in  cultivating  olive  trees  and 
vines : 


"The  olive  is  a  tree  that  ought  to  be  culti- 
vated wherever  it  will  grow.  The  labor  of 
gathering  the  olives  is  not  so  much  as  some 
think.  If  the  trees  are  so  pruned  as  not  to 
grow  above  fourteen  or  sixteen  feet  high,  the 
olives  are  easily  beaten  off  the  trees  with  long 
sticks,  large  cloths  or  tarpaulins  having  been 
spread  under  the  trees  to  receive  the  berries. 
A  man  could  easily  knock  down  five  hundred- 
weight a  day,  which  would  make  nearly  four 
gallons — at  least,  three  and  a  half— of  oil. 

"The  process  of  oil-making  is  very  simple  in 
expressing  the  oil.  It  can  be  done  with  a  hy- 
draulic, or  any  large  screw-press,  the  olives  be- 
ing placed  in  a  perforated  cylinder  and  pressed. 
Oil  and  water  will  come  over.  This  should  be 
received  in  a  tub,  the  oil  rising  to  the  top  in 
half  an  hour  or  so,  when  it  is  skimmed  off  and 
put  into  a  cask,  or  other  convenient  wooden  or 
earthen  vessel,  and  let  stand  where  the  light 
cannot  reach  it  to  clear  itself.  Great  care 
should  be  taken  to  skim  off  all  the  oil  before 
fermentation  of  the  fruity  juice  of  the  olive  sets 
in,  or  it  will  be  re-absorbed  and  lost.  .We  con- 
sider this  the  very  finest  oil. 

"The  stones  that  remain  at  the  end  of  this 
process  may  then  be  ground  under  a  heavy 
stone,  such  as  a  millstone,  to  pulp,  mixed  with 
hot  water,  placed  in  a  strong  bag  of  canvas,  or 
like  material,  and  pressed  as  before." 

As  to  the  best  time  for  gathering  the  fruit,  it 
seems  to  be  just  when  it  approaches  natural 
ripeness;  but  about  Lisbon  they  were  left  on 
the  trees  till  fully  ripe. 

Pliny  condemned  the  practice  of  leaving  the 
fruit  over  long  on  the  trees,  as  he  considered 
that  by  so  doing  the  next  year's  crop  is  injured. 
"Haerendo,  enim,  ultra  suum  tempus  absumunt 
venientibus  alimentum." 

The  following  is  from  the  paper  of  B.  B. 
Redding,  Esq.,  already  mentioned,  and  well 
deserves  to  be  recorded  here.  My  warmest 
thanks  are  due,  and  tendered,  to  him  for  his 
kindness  and  urbanity  in  allowing  me  to  use 
his  labors. 

INTRODUCTION    OF    THE    OLIVE    INTO    CALI- 
FORNIA. 

"I  have  found  it  very  difficult  to  obtain  the 
history  of  the  introduction  of  the  Mission  olive 
into  California.  It  was  first  brought  to  Amer- 
ica by  Antonia  Ribora,  who  took  it  from  Spain 
to  Lima  in  1 560.  Frezier  speaks  of  the  olive 
being  used  for  oil  in  Chile  as  early  as  1700. 
Frank  A.  Kimball,  of  San  Diego,  in  an  article 
on  the  olive  in  the  Southern  California  Horti- 
culturist, states  that  the  first  olive  trees  were 
planted  by  the  Spanish  missionaries  at  that 


THE   OLIVE   TREE. 


place  in  1769.  If  this  is  correct,  they  are  from 
seed  forwarded  from  San  Bias  in  Mexico  by 
Don  Joseph  de  Galvez,  who  fitted  out  an  expe- 
dition by  virtue  of  a  royal  order  to  ' re-discover 
and  people  the  port  of  Monterey,  or  at  least 
San  Diego,'  which  expedition  accompanied 
Father  Junipero  Sera  in  his  missionary  efforts 
'to  extend  the  spiritual  conquest  of  the  North.' 
Fifty  years  later  it  is  recorded  'that  all  the 
seeds  that  Galvez  had  been  so  provident  in 
sending  up  took  root  and  prospered.  The 
fathers  built  new  missions,  and  continually  re- 
plenished their  stock  of  converts,  which,  at  one 
time,  were  about  twenty  thousand.  They  plant- 
ed vineyards,  orchards,  and  the  olive.'  From 
San  Diego  the  tree  was  transplanted  to  nearly 
all  the  other  missions,  and  from  these  missions 
to  various  places  throughout  the  State.  Other 
than  those  at  San  Diego,  Santa  Barbara,  and 
San  Luis  Obispo,  I  cannot  learn  that  this  tree 
has  as  yet  been  planted  in  orchard  form,  with 
the  object  of  making  profit  from  its  fruit. 

THE  MISSION  OLIVE. 

"H.  N.  Bolander,  who  had  charge  of  the 
botany  of  the  geological  survey  of  the  State,  in- 
forms me  that  in  all  of  the  missions  there  was 
but  one  variety  of  the  olive,  one  of  pear,  and 
one  of  grape. 

"I  have  made  considerable  effort  to  learn 
the  name  of  this  particular  olive,  and  to  ascer- 
tain if  this  variety  is  cultivated  in  Europe,  but 
without  success.  John  Ellis,  who  has  charge  of 
the  horticultural  grounds  at  the  University,  in- 
forms me  that  the  seeds  of  the  Mission  olive 
'come  correct,  and  produce  fruit  of  the  same 
kind  as  the  parent.'  From  the  fact  that  the 
seeds  produce  trees  bearing  the  same  kind  of 
fruit  as  the  parent,  it  would  be  safe  to  conclude 
that  it  is  the  original  stock  of  the  wild  olive  of 
Europe  or  Africa.  It  is  a  shy  bearer,  and  has 
fruit  very  much  smaller  than  the  varieties  culti- 
vated in  Italy  and  the  south  of  France.  It  is 
probably  very  valuable  as  a  stock  on  which  to 
graft  or  bud  more  prolific  kinds.  It  has,  how- 
ever, demonstrated  that  the  best  varieties  can 
be  successfully  grown  over  a  wide  range  in  Cali- 
fornia. 

A  USEFUL  AND  PROFITABLE  TREE. 

"  I  can  find  no  other  tree  so  useful  and  pro- 
fitable that  will  grow  and  thrive  with  so  small 
an  amount  of  moisture.  If,  as  many  believe, 
the  annual  rain -fall  of  a  given  place  can  be  in- 
creased by  the  planting  of  trees,  I  do  not  know 
so  useful  a  tree  to  recommend  for  this  purpose, 
f  it  should  fail  in  adding  to  the  rain,  it  will  be 


certain  to  thrive  on  what  rain  does  fall,  and  be 
sure  to  yield  oil  whether  cultivated  or  neglected ; 
for  what  Virgil  wrote  nineteen  hundred  years 
ago  is  still  true.  After  having  described  the 
continuous  culture  necessary  for  the  vine,  he 
adds  :  'On  the  other  hand,  the  olives  require  no 
culture,  nor  do  they  expect  the  crooked  pruning- 
hook  and  tenacious  harrow,  when  once  they 
are  rooted  in  the  ground  and  have  stood  the 
blasts.  Earth  of  herself  supplies  the  plants  with 
moisture  when  opened  by  the  hooked  tooth  of 
the  drag,  and  weighty  fruits  when  opened  by 
the  share.  Nurture  for  thyself,  with  this,  the 
fat  and  peace  delighting  olive.'" 

The  following  is  from  a  most  ably  written  and 
interesting  article  by  Augustus  L.  Hillhous,  in 
Michaux's  North  American  Sylva,  vol.  ii,  pp. 
130  et  seq.: 

"The  olive  has  been  called  the  polypus  of 
trees,  for  it  is  propagated  by  all  the  known 
methods  of  propagating  trees — by  sowing  the 
seed,  by  layers,  by  slips,  by  cuttings  of  the  root, 
by  sprouts  separated  from  the  trunk,  or  from 
roots  of  the  parent  stock.  Seed  planting  is 
generally  rejected  on  account  of  the  length  of 
time  before  bearing.  When  it  is  resorted  to 
the  best  sorts  only  are  selected,  of  these  the 
Gros  Kibe's  being  considered  the  best.  The 
pulp  is  removed  and  the  berries  cleaned  in  an 
alkaline  solution,  and  planted,  in  March,  in  well 
manured,  rich,  deep  soil,  in  a  sheltered  locality, 
two  or  three  inches  deep  in  trenches."  [For 
convenience  of  removing,  the  seeds  should  be 
six  inches  asunder,  unless  "thinning  out"  be 
contemplated.]  "To  accelerate  the  germination, 
the  stones  may  be  kept  in  fine  mold  during  the 
summer  and  autumn,  and  sown  in  the  begin- 
ning of  January.  They  soon  germinate,  and  are 
strong  enough  to  bear  removal  the  next  winter. 
These  will  have  to  be  grafted,  and  the  best 
method  is  by  inoculation,  and  the  safest  time 
for  it  is  the  close  of  winter  or  the  opening  of 
spring." 

OIL  MILL,  AND  THE  WORKING  OF  IT. 

The  oil  mill  retains  nearly  its  primitive  form. 
It  consists  of  a  basin  raised  two  feet  from  the 
ground,  with  an  upright  beam  in  the  middle, 
around  which  a  massive  millstone  is  turned  by 
water,  or  by  a  beast  of  burden.  The  press  is 
solidly  constructed  of  wood,  or  of  cast-iron,  and 
is  moved  by  a  compound  lever.  The  berries, 
after  being  crushed  to  a  paste,  are  put  into  sacks 
of  coarse  linen,  or  of  feather  grass,  and  submit- 
ted to  the  press. 

The  virgin  oil,  which  is  the  first  discharged, 
is  the  purest,  and  retains  most  sensibly  the 
taste  of  the  fruit.  It  is  received  in  vessels  half 


THE   OLIVE    TREE. 


filled  with  water,  from  which  it  is  taken  off  and 
set  apart  in  earthenware  jars.  To  separate  any 
vegetable  fibers  and  other  impurities,  it  is  fre- 
quently decanted.  When  no  more  flows,  the 
paste  is  broken  up,  treated  with  hot  water,  and 
pressed  again.  This  is  often  done  a  third  time. 
The  best  oil  for  domestic  purposes  is  made 
from  the  pulp  only.  A  machine  has  been  made 
for  pulping  without  smashing  the  stones,  which 
contain  a  little  tannic  acid.  All  the  inferior 
qualities  find  their  uses  in  machinery,  in  soap- 
making,  lamps,  etc. 

Two  things  occur  to  me  to  mention  in  this 
connection,  viz: 

(i.)  If  the  crushed  matter  be  allowed  to  stand 
for  any  considerable  time — say  three  or  four 
hours — fermentation  will  have  set  in  if  the  oil 
cellar  be  warm,  and  the  loss  of  oil  will  be  quite 
considerable. 

(2.)  Wherever  the  oil  cellar  is  situated  and 
the  various  operations  of  purifying  are  con- 
ducted, direct  sunlight  must  be  excluded  if  the 
oil  is  to  remain  good.  It  must  never  for  one 
minute  see  sunlight,  or  it  is  spoiled. 

A  list  of  seven  favorite  kinds,  from  a  note  in 
Michaux : 

(i.)  Olivier  Pleureur — Fourteenth  variety  of 
the  New  Duhamel;  a  fine  tree,  somewhat  re- 
sembling a  weeping  willow;  good  both  for  ta- 
ble and  oil ;  Mr.  Thomas  Hardy,  of  Bankside, 
South  Australia,  has  it. 

(2.)  Olivier  a  fruit  arronde  (Olea  spherica) 
— It  requires  moisture,  good  soil,  and  plenty  of 
manure.  Good  for  oil. 

(3.)  Olivier  de  Lucque  ( Olea  minor  lucensis) 
— Hardy,  and  yields  fruit  for  preserving. 

(4  and  5.)  Aglandeon — Are  good  for  oil,  and 
prefer  dry  and  elevated  grounds. 

(6.)  Olivier  Amygdalin — Much  prized  about 
Montpelier  for  its  fine  and  abundant  oil. 

(7.)  Picholinf  Olea  oblonga) — Yields  the  most 
celebrated  pickled  olives.  This  variety  is  not 
delicate  in  its  choice  of  soil  and  climate. 

The  following  extracts  from  Busby's  Journal 
are  both  interesting  and  useful : 

"About  a  mile  from  the  town  we  struck  off 
into  a  plantation  of  olives.  Few  of  the  trees, 
however,  contained  any  considerable  quantity, 
and  some  were  altogether  without  fruit.  Such 
olives  we  pulled  were  universally  rotten.  I  was 
afterward  told  by  Mr.  Gordon  that  all  olives  are 
rotten  this  year,  and  that  this  is  invariably  the 
case  every  second  year.  A  little  farther  we  saw 
a  new  plantation  on  the  opposite  side  of  the 
road,  and  luckily  found  a  peasant.  To  our 
questions  respecting  the  olives,  he  informed  us 


that  the  plants  bear  a  little  fruit  even  the  first 
year ;  but,  in  the  second  and  third  years,  they 
bear  a  considerable  crop  in  proportion  to  their 
size.  Some  of  what  we  saw  had  been  eighteen 
months,  some  only  six  months.  The  former 
appeared  healthy  young  trees,  covered  with  a 
considerable  quantity  of  foliage.  The  latter 
had  only  a  few  slender  shoots,  and  some  of 
them  indeed  stood  in  their  original  nakedness. 
The  olive  plants  were  nothing  else  than  large 
limbs  of  old  trees  from  eight  to  ten  feet  in 
length  and  from  two  to  three  inches  in  diame- 
ter. They  are  sunk  about  four  or  five  feet  in 
the  ground,  and  the  part  of  the  plant  above 
ground  is  covered,  during  the  first  summer,  with 
a  cone  of  earth  or  clay  to  the  hight  of  from  two 
to  three  feet. 

"The  olive  having  been  mentioned,  we  were 
shown  two  trees  which  supported  a  wheel  for 
drawing  water  from  the  well.  Two  posts  hav- 
ing been  required  for  this  purpose  when  they 
were  clearing  the  ground  of  some  olive  trees 
three  years  ago,  they  took  two  of  the  trunks  of 
these,  which  were  respectively  ten  or  twelve 
inches  in  diameter ;  they  nevertheless  took 
root,  and  are  now  covered  with  strong  branches, 
affording  a  proof  of  the  great  facility  with  which 
the  olive  takes  root.  The  vinador  said  that  an 
olive  would  produce  a  crop  three  years  after  its 
plantation,  but  not  a  full  crop  till  its  fifth  year, 
and  would  reach  its  greatest  perfection  in  its 
tenth  year.  He  said  a  plant  ought  to  be  the 
limb  of  a  tree  of  the  thickness  of  a  man's  arm. 
Being  asked  how  long  it  would  take  before  a 
slip  such  as  we  plant  in  New  South  Wales 
would  bear  a  crop,  he  appeared  to  consider  the 
proposal  as  ridiculous,  and  said  he  thought 
twenty  years.  He  did  not  consider  the  oil  of 
young  olives  inferior  to  that  of  the  old;  the 
only  difference  in  their  value  arises  from  their 
quantity.  The  trees  are  planted  with  consider- 
able regularity,  at  the  distance  of  thirty-six  or 
forty  feet.  An  average  crop  is  from  one  and  a 
quarter  to  one  and  a  half  arrobas — that  is  from 
five  to  six  English  gallons  each  tree. 

"When  rain  falls  in  August,  the  olives  always 
suffer  from  it.  All  the  ground  we  saw  was  a 
light  sandy  loam.  It  is  plowed  once  a  year. 
They  plow  an  aranzada  of  the  olive  ground  in 
a  day,  but  not  more  than  half  that  quantity  of 
the  meadow  or  corn  land  below.  There  are 
five  kinds  of  olives  on  the  estate ;  one  of  them, 
the  'La  Reyna,'  is  of  a  very  large  size,  and  is 
pickled  for  eating.  The  tree  of  this  variety 
produces  but  little  fruit,  and  the  fruit  when 
pressed  yields  very  little  oil,  but  is  highly  prized 
for  eating,  being  as  large  as  a  good  sized  plum. 

"After  having  been  brought  home,  the  olives 
lie  in  a  heap  on  an  average  about  fifteen  days 


THE    OLIVE   TREE. 


before  they  are  crushed.  After  having  been 
crushed,  they  are  put  into  the  press,  and  it  is 
the  common  practice  to  pour  hot  water  upon 
them  in  order  to  extract  the  oil.  They  are 
pressed  thrice,  and  each  time  with  addition  of 
boiling  water.  The  fluid  runs  from  the  press 
to  a  cistern,  and  when  it  is  filled,  the  oil  flows 
over  the  top,  leaving  the  water  below,  which  is 
cleared  away  as  necessary.  The  peasant  said 
that  all  the  difference  between  the  fine  and 
common  oil  was,  that  the  former  was  the  virgin 
juice  drawn  off  with  cold  water,  and  not  mixed 
with  the  second  and  third  pressings.  The  trees 
on  this  property  are  reckoned  very  young  for 
olives,  although  they  are  sixty  years  old.  They 
are  pruned  every  year.  But  olive  trees  are  said 
not  to  require  pruning  at  all  till  they  are  twen- 
ty-five or  thirty  years  old.  Two  hundred  aran- 
zadas  are  equal  to  one  hundred  and  ninety-one 
English  acres;  and  three  thousand  arrobas  of 
oil  (the  average  annual  produce)  are  equal  to 
twelve  thousand  seven  hundred  and  thirty -five 
English  gallons,  old  measure — about  sixty-three 
and  three-quarter  gallons  per  English  acre.  I 
do  not  know,  however,  whether  there  was  not 


included  in  this  estimate  forty  aranzadas  that 
are  entirely  planted  with  the  '  La  Reyna,'  which 
are  never  pressed  for  oil.  Even  with  this  de- 
duction the  produce  would  fall  very  far  short 
of  what  the  trees  of  the  Hieronomites  were  said 
to  produce,  viz :  from  three  to  four  fanegas  of 
olives  each  tree,  ea.chfanega  yielding  an  arroba 
of  oil.  An  English  acre  will  contain  sixty  trees 
twenty-seven  feet  apart,  and  sixty  was  said  by 
the  peasant  to  be  the  number  on  each  aran- 
zada.  One  hundred  and  fifty-three  acres,  bear- 
ing sixty  trees  each,  will  contain  nine  thousand 
one  hundred  and  eighty  trees,  and  the  produce 
being  three  thousand  arrobas,  it  is  scarcely  one- 
third  of  an  arroba  for  each  tree.  This  comes 
nearer  to  Don  Jacobo  Gordon's  statement,  that 
from  one  and  a  quarter  to  one  and  a  half  arroba 
is  reckoned  a  good  return  from  each  tree.  The 
trees  of  the  Hieronomites,  as  well,  indeed,  as 
the  most  of  those  I  saw  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Xeres,  were  planted  on  a  richer  soil,  and  were 
of  much  larger  dimensions;  but  this  could 
never  cause  such  a  difference  as  to  reconcile 
the  different  statements.'3 


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BERKELEY 

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JAN  17  1958 


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